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Saturday, April 30, 2011

In 2010, one of my goals was to bring down the 1870 Brick Wall for my Ewell Ancestors, my paternal grandmother's maternal line. Try as I might, none of the paths I ventured down trying to find the last slave owner of my Ewell Ancestors panned out. So, this year, I've decided to change gears and explore my grandmother's paternal side. Hopefully, I will be more successful following my Everett line.

Before I actually delve into looking for that elusive last slave owner, I should talk about how I arrived at the 1870 impasse of my Everett ancestors. Over the past two years, I've divulged bits and pieces of the journey in researching my Everett Ancestors but don't think I've painted the complete picture. I will break the journey back to 1870 into several post so as not to be too long. Please note that some of this may be reiterations of previous posts.

Great Grandpa Peter Everett

Peter T. "PT" Everett is my great grandfather, Grandmomma Jones' father. I've previously written about Grandpa Peter's death certificate, which listed his parents as Henry Everett and Vica Ann Everett and stated that Grandpa Peter was born in Pitt County, NC.

John Ewell was the informant and is probably one of my grandmother's relatives on her mother's side. I've yet to purse the connection John Ewell may have to my grandmother but hope to one day determine what if any connection there is as I continue to try to track down other descendants.

The death certificate find steered me in the wrong direction initially as I looked in Pitt County, North Carolina for my great grandfather as well as my 2nd great grandparents and was not coming across any documentation to indicate that they were there. That being said, research in Pitt County may still prove to be beneficial since it neighbors Martin County, North Carolina, which is the ancestral home county.

Starting to Put the Pieces Together

In 2010, I requested and received a copy of my great grandparents' marriage license, which I thought I had requested in my early research days.

Their marriage certificate would prove to be launching pad for me finally following my Everett line back to 1870.

While the given names of Grandpa Peter's parents on his death certificate were correct, my great grandparent's marriage license indicate that my 2nd great grandfather's name was Henry Cherry and that my 2nd great grandmother's name was Vicy Ann Hargett and she was still living when my great grandparents married in 1887.

As noted in my previous post on the Hargett surname, this find confirmed the Hargett surname within our family that Aunt Martha had told me about. So, finally, documentation to support the oral history of my family. Further research would prove that the Hargett surname was not my great grandmother's maiden name.

To be continued

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The copy of Peter T. Everett's death certificate was obtained via Ancestry.com. The copy of the marriage certificate for my great grandparents was obtained from the Martin County, North Carolina Register of Deeds.

Monday, April 25, 2011

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I am continuing to work on transcribing the many newspaper clippings contained in an old scrapbook that I inherited from my Aunt Martha after she passed. Many of these old clippings contain references to my paternal grandfather, Rev. H. C. Jones, during his time as Director of the Negro Home and Welfare Association in Winston-Salem, NC.

Home and Welfare Groups to Study Varied Topics

The local Negro Home and Welfare Association announced today project which will be sponsored by adult clubs during the months of January and February in the fields of family relationship, health, gardening, flowers and sewing.

Rev. H. C. Jones, director of the association, stated that “many families have followed devious paths which have resulted in the increase of crime and delinquency because of the lack of the proper training in family relationship.” In order to create interest in this field and to give elementary training to parents and prospective parents, a family relationship project will be sponsored through the adult clubs during the months of January and February by representatives from the Family Service Agency and the County Welfare Department.

It is hoped by the association that this project will lead to establishment of a one-night family relationship institute held periodically in various sections of the city with courses on subjects relation to family life such as pre-marriage, marriage compatibility, family problems, parent-child problems, etc. Such clubs and instates, if made interesting and popular will not only help improve family life and reduce crime but will serve as an asset to the juvenile courts which may recommend parents of the delinquents to attend the courses.

Each club is asked to select the family with the highest percent of its members making a definite contribution to citizenship through leadership in activities in the churches, schools and other agencies. Special honors and prizes will be given to the winning family, it was announced.

The health leader in each club is asked to contact each person in his community and male a list of all who would like a free X-ray examination in February. Time will be allotted in each club for examinations of the group.

Prizes will be given by the Garden Club Council to the person with the highest number of garden units including Winter vegetables planted or growing, compost piles, deep breaking of garden not in use and leaving it in the rough, preparations of seed boxes and hot beds.

Sewing leaders are asked to invite everyone in the neighborhood to bring old clothes made of materials such as rayon faille, bengline, rayon jersey to the next meeting for a contest in making handbags, gloves and scarfs.

This undated article is probably from around 1945 and most likely appeared in either the Twin City Sentinel or the Winston Salem Journal.

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Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin – some we never met – others we see a time in their life before we knew them. A fuller explanation can be found here.

Amanuensis Monday is a popular ongoing series created by John Newmark atTransylvanianDutch.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Getting ready for Easter Service this morning, I suddenly started singing The Hallelujah Chorus, and as I did my mind drifted to the memories of Daddy and Aunt Martha singing this along with the other members of the choir at Waddell Chapel.

Wouldn't you know that the Hallelujah Chorus was the closing song for today's Easter service, where I attend church. To all the ancestors watching over me, thanks, I needed that.

Monday, April 18, 2011

An Amanuensis is a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I'm slowly tying to return to some of my hobbies and my loves as it helps with the grieving. So today, I return to transcribing the newspaper clippings contained in the old scrapbook I inherited from Aunt Martha. Many of these old clippings contain references to my paternal grandfather, Rev. H. C. Jones, during his time as Director of the Negro Home and Welfare Association in Winston-Salem, NC.

War Chest Body Approves Negro Home, Welfare Group

The Negro Home and Welfare Association was approved by the Community War Chest Commission yesterday as a member of the Community Council for a demonstration period.

Rev. H. C. Jones is executive secretary of the association. Approval was recommended to the commission by the executive board, after a report by the committee headed by Mrs. Irving Carlyle.

At the meeting of the commission, it was announced that a tentative program for the organization’s coming year has been worked out.

Based on the notes in the scrapbook, this article appeared in the Winston Salem Journal, August 12, 1945.

*****Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin – some we never met – others we see a time in their life before we knew them. A fuller explanation can be found here.Amanuensis Monday is a popular ongoing series created by John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Daddy always told mom that she would out live him. It was the one thing he never wavered on no matter how much we tried to tell him that God hadn’t revealed that to us. But, turns out daddy was right. On Saturday, March 26, 2011, the Lord called daddy home.

Dad’s body had been waging a war for years, first the diabetes, then the heart disease and high blood pressure, and finally the kidney damage that resulted from the high blood pressure. I keep thinking anybody else, the battle would have been lost years ago. But daddy was like a prize fighter and kept battling. But this year was an especially tough year for dad. Eventually, his kidneys couldn’t take any more and begin shutting down.

I suppose we could have extended his life through dialysis but daddy was adamant about not going on dialysis and wanted no heroic measures taken to prolong his life. Besides, due to all his other health issues, especially his heart, daddy wasn’t a candidate for dialysis anyway.

Monday, April 4, 2011, was daddy’s going home service. The following is something I wrote and read at the service. I initially was going to have one of my cousins read it for me, because I didn’t think I could get through it. Thankfully, she declined to read it, and told me that I had to be the one to read it.

In my life, there have been two men that were larger than life to me. One of those two men was my maternal grandfather, LC Hosch, who was called home in 1978. The other, of course, was my father.

As it became evident that the Lord was calling dad on home, I reflected on our time together during these past 50 years.

Like practically every little girl from my era growing up in the South, I learned to drive almost as soon as I could walk. Sitting on dad’s lap, barely able to peer over the steering wheel, daddy pressed the gas pedal and brakes while I did the steering or so I thought.

I use to always want a brother or sister but truth is I already had one even though he was dad, too. Like any big brother, dad use to pick at me something fierce. One episode that I recall was when I was trying to get some reading done. When I was young, I loved to read. So, I was trying to read and dad kept flicking the lights on and off. And like any little sister would do, I yelled for mom to make daddy stop.

Daddy could be the ultimate funny man, too. One morning when I was in sixth grade, as mom was preparing breakfast and I was getting ready for school, daddy suddenly started talking about the next thing you know Mavis will have some ‘ole’ guy up in here. As he walked through our living room toward the kitchen mom and I heard “How do you do sir?” I’m thinking who is he talking to when he says “She’ll be right out.” Daddy was practicing for me dating.

Daddy didn’t have a lot of hobbies but whenever he developed a new interest the whole family had to take on this new hobby whether it be chess, ham radio, or whatever. When I say whole family, I’m not just talking about me and mom but his brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, too. To this day, I can still hear the sounds of Morse Code in my head.

Both of my parents taught me to dream big especially dad. As such, I got to experience places and things that most children from my generation didn’t such as trips to the Bahamas and Europe. And no offense to my friends and family who are nurses, but when I thought about being a Nurse, daddy told me that Nurses were a dime a dozen, find something else to do. He never knew how much that mandate truly helped as I learned I really can’t handle the sight of other people’s blood even though daddy’s main reason for telling me that was because Nurses didn’t make enough money.

In the final months of his life, I think dad knew that his life was drawing to a close even if we didn’t always pick up on all the signs. Although dad had many health issues and crises during the years, these last few months were different. In hindsight, I can now see clearly what I only suspected at the time was occurring. Over those last few weeks, daddy reminded me of the importance of church and God, and told me to stay in church, something he had never done before. It was like he was seeing my life too and knew that there were times like many of us that I sometimes struggled in this area of my life and knew that I would need both God and the Church to endure the pain of losing him. He told both mom and me how much he loved us, also telling both me and his caretakers how mom had really stuck by him.

Like any child, especially an only child, I would have loved more time with my dad. Through all of dad’s crises, I use to always tell God that I wasn’t ready to let go just yet because I still needed my daddy. But in those final days and hours of dad’s life, I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do which was release daddy back to the one who had given him to me as my father. Even though he was no longer able to respond, I let daddy know that mom and I would be okay and that he would always be with us.

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